Privatisation of Agriculture in Russia and China in the 1980s and 1990s

What the effects of the privatisation of agriculture in Russia and China in the 1980s and 1990s?

The privatisation of agriculture in Russia started on 1989 – 1990 when Gorbachev changed the Soviet legislation about the non-government enterprises. So the agricultural program reform allowed the creation of non-government corporations of agricultural products. This, has helped the movement from corporate farms to individual farms. The number of peasant farms has been increased quickly to 270.000 in 1994 and became steady, about 280.000 or less in 1995. The number of the peasant farms was not the expected one by the government. Also, when the reform began the productivity and the efficiency have declined. As far as the privatisation of agriculture in China, this issue was part of the general Chinese economic reform which was implemented from Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping, decentralised the agriculture and gave strong attention to the household – responsibility system (HRS) which separated the common lands to private. This action gave a strong push up to China’s economy increasing the agricultural production and performance. The prices of agricultural products had increased and as a result of this, the quality of living standards in China has enhanced and afterwards the rural industry had improved. As far as the search strategy I followed for this particular topic, I have to mention some deductions. As the topic is not familiar to my knowledge, I did not know in which sources I had to search. So, I typed the whole question on the University’s library search machine with the purpose to find several references and get an idea for what I was looking for. The next step was to identify the key words of the question and try to continue my search using them. The key words I used are “Agriculture in Russia”, “Agriculture in China”, “Land reform in Russia”, “Land reform in China”, “China's agricultural privatisation programme”, “Russia's agricultural privatisation programme”, “impact of agriculture privatisation in China”, “impact of agriculture privatisation in Russia”. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a proper database which includes agricultural topics, as the particular question is social – economic topic. To accomplish my search I used one of the biggest search machines, the Google. Moreover, I used the Google Scholar, which provides very useful information about everything. Thus I searched in journals, articles, PhDs thesis (but I could not find a suitable one) and educational reports from universities.

The use of carbenes to make catalysts

The use of carbenes to make catalysts is quite new in chemistry sector. Because of Carbenes are consisted of non-common carbon atoms which are usually unbalanced in nature, attaching metals to create metal complexes and finally work as very important catalysts. The majority of scientists did not believe that it would ever be possible the construction of a particular kind of Carbenes. This certain kind of carbenes is called “abnormal N-Heterocyclic carbenes”, they developed in laboratory and they are used to make catalysts. Obviously they have given great opportunities for further development in many sectors of industry, especially in pharmaceutical industry. The chemist from the University of California, Riverside, Professor Guy Bertrand accomplished to separate and create aNCHs which are metal-free and chemists can use them to make every desired complex. The synthesis of a completely different class of metal-free aNHCs can drive to new roads the area of expertise of catalysis. It can give also great prospect of innovation in drug research and manufacture as catalytic procedures can facilitate to keep costs under control. This discovery can be really helpful and contribute to solve a great variety of drawbacks as the interest about this is continuously increased as it is very friendly to environment. Another advantage of abnormal N-Heterocyclic carbenes is that they function as organometallic catalysts which enhance their eco-friendly ability. As far as the strategy I followed for this topic, I came into conclusion about some things. Again this particular topic was completely out of my knowledge, so I had first to identify what exactly are carbenes and what is catalyst. After a general search in the library and google, I tried to focus on key words, like “carbenes”, “catalyst”. As long as I knew that the topic is about chemistry, my direction on the research led me to find journals and resources about chemistry. After finding some references from journals, I tried to search on PhD Thesis but I was not able to discover an appropriate PhD thesis which declares the carbenes and their usage on making catalysts. A very interesting thing is that during my research I recognized that catalysts are made of a particular type of carbenes which is artificial. The strengths of my research strategy are that it was feasible to find an acceptable variety of references to support my answer, as well as to make clear the definition of carbenes and their implementation. On the other hand the weaknesses of my research strategy were that obviously I could not discover a proper PhD Thesis in order to go deeper on my investigation. The reference which supports and describe in the best way my answer is “Nicolas Marion, S.D.-G.D., Steven P. Nolan Prof. Dr. (2007) 'N-Heterocyclic Carbenes as Organocatalysts'. Angewandte Chemie.”

Constructing flexible antenna by injecting liquid metal into elastomeric microchannels

The use of antennas is widespread with many implementations. The traditional antennas are made up from metal, especially copper. This means that antennas are too strong, even though they can break down easily. Because of the wide application antennas have, from medical to technical and military sector, users encountered a lot of problems, most significant problem was the antenna’s limitation on how far they could get curved. Thus, scientists made it possible to construct flexible antennas from liquid metal in order to overcome this limitation. They accomplished their goal injecting liquid metal into elastomeric microchannels. The liquid metal they used is EGaIn which is consisted of 75% eutectic gallium and 25% indium. So, inserting liquid metal into a layer of microchannels in an elastomeric surface it is a very simple way to construct radiating frameworks. In contrast to traditional antennas, made up from stiff metal which is not flexible, the new type of them, uses the mechanical attributes of the enclosed material and also can be flexible and strong. This flexible antenna can be used in many existing applications such as cell phones or other electronic devices but also can be used in other type of applications such as textiles. Flexible antennas can be stretched without losing of their efficiency or attributes as they have the ability to tolerate any kind of effort upon them. Moreover, the ability of liquid metal to mix up with other metals, could help the straight electrical connection and integration of antennas into surfaces with electronic parts. As far as the search strategy I followed, I have to mention some inferences. The topic was completely unknown for me, although I understood that it is an engineering topic, so I had to focus my research on engineering sources. The key words I used are “flexible”, “antenna”, “liquid”, “metal”, “elastomeric” and “microchannel”. At first, I used them altogether as I wanted to understand what exactly is the topic. Afterwards, I used them separately or in combination. One interesting thing is that some references from google patent, which were too useful to understand the concept of flexible antenna invention. Furthermore, I found a lot of mechanical and engineering journals which depict very clearly the implementation and the construction of flexible antenna. An important problem I faced on the beginning it was that I found the same paper in many different sources and I had to dig more in the internet. The most appropriate reference I used for answering this particular topic is ” Gerard J. Hayes, J.-H.S., Amit Qusba, Michael D. Dickey, Gianluca Lazzi (2012) 'Flexible Liquid Metal Alloy (EGlan) Microstrip Patch Antenna'. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.”

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